


Flare

by BlastTyrant



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: EXO - Freeform, Eventual Romance, Exo/Awoken - Freeform, F/M, Romance, Yes he dies, awoken - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:35:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26221246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlastTyrant/pseuds/BlastTyrant
Summary: The life of a Guardian can quickly become monotonous, especially when you're a Hunter turned Vanguard meant to be traversing the wild and dark places of the galaxy, rather than handing out patrol missions and reading reports. But every once in a great while, a breath of fresh air comes sweeping in in the form of a newly risen Hunter.I suck at summaries. Cayde-6/Female Guardian. Mostly canon.
Relationships: Cayde-6/Female Guardian (Destiny)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 23





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> **DISCLAIMER: I only own my personal original characters and ideas. Any familiar characters, events, and locations likely belong to Bungie.**  
> 

“Cayde, are you listening?” A voice demanded from the head of the table.

The Exo’s chin slid from his palm and his arm hit the table with a dull, metal thunk. In truth, he hadn’t been listening. Cayde-6 was not built for sitting through endless hours of horribly boring Vanguard meetings. 

“Huh?” The Hunter Vanguard cleared his throat mechanically, glancing across the table at the dark skinned Warlock across from him who had her brow quirked before moving his gaze to the Awoken Titan at the head of the table. “Oh, yeah. Yup. Sounds great.” 

Commander Zavala was normally a stoic and composed person, but he let a smirk slip onto his face just this once. The Hunter down the table from him made a nervous ticking noise in the back of his metal throat as the two stared each other down. 

“Good. You’ll be at the firing range on the 5th floor at 0500 every morning this week, then.” Zavala informed the Exo, a brow raised in a silent invitation for the Hunter to argue.

“Oh, _come on_! That’s not f-“ The Hunter cut himself off, fisting his hand on the table top. “Yeah ok, I deserved that. But don’t come cryin’ to me when the revive metrics within the tower are off the charts for the month.” He warned, leaning forward and pointing a metal finger at the Commander in warning.

“Noted.” The Commander replied dryly, before moving his gaze to the Warlock on the other side of the table. “Ikora? You have this weeks found Guardian reports?” 

The dark skinned woman cleared her throat, chasing away the ghost of an amused quirk of her lips as she tapped away on her data pad, nodding her bald head as she did so.

“Yes. Only 9 this week.” She sighed, swiping through a list of names on the data pad. “Four Warlocks, four Titans, and one Hunter.” 

“Any info on that new Hunter?” Cayde interjected quickly. 

The Exo didn’t even try to hide his excitement. It had been a good couple of months since a new Hunter had been woken up by their Ghost. And the last handful hadn’t been anything to write home about. He had his hopes up that maybe this one would be worth something. 

Zavala sighed and Iroka pinched the bridge of her nose before answering the Hunter Vanguard.  
“I sent that information to your Ghost two days ago.” 

Cayde’s Ghost, Sundance, chirped the affirmative from over his shoulder. _Traitor._

“Sorry, Ikora. I’ve just been _so_ busy, y’know? Must have missed it.” The Hunter shrugged nonchalantly, shooting her what he thought was a winning grin.

“I’m sure.” The Warlock grumbled with a roll of her eyes. 

The meeting drug on after that. Cayde really didn’t understand why these meetings were necessary, it was the same old shit every week. Fallen here, Hive there, Vex everywhere, not to mention Cabal. Not that he’d necessarily rather be standing at the Vanguard table in the Hall of Guardians. But at least then there was a chance one of his Hunters would report back with a good story. And it wasn’t a far walk to Shaxx’s table, so he could watch Crucible matches whenever he wanted, even if Ol’ One Horn wouldn’t accept bets from him. 

Just when he had started to nod off again, Zavala finally, _FINALLY_ called their meeting to an end and dismissed them back to their regular posts. Cayde was out of his chair and out the door before the Commander had even finished speaking, his cloak snapping behind him. 

Unfortunately for the Exo, the hours spent at the table in the Hall of Guardians wasn’t much more engaging than the meeting he had been so desperate to be out of. He spent his time pouring over patrol reports and minor fireteam gripes from his Hunters. Eventually, he requested for Sundance to transfer the information packet on his new Hunter to his data pad and he spent a total of five minutes reading through that. They never knew much about their new Guardians until they got there. The reports just contained their first resurrection coordinates, gender, race, and what class their Ghost assigned them upon resurrection. His new Hunter was a female Awoken. 

Cayde always liked to play “What Will They Look Like” with himself before meeting one of his new Guardians. Would her skin be purple? Or blue? And with Awoken, you never knew what color those glowing eyes of theirs would be. He tapped out a random beat with his metal fingers onto the table in front of him, the game could only occupy him for so long, after all. 

“ _Cayde_ , do you mind?” Ikora snapped from across the table, shooting him a glare over the top of her data pad.

“Huh?” The Hunter replied stupidly, jerking out of his stupor. 

The Warlock glanced pointedly at his fingers dancing along the table top, brows raised.

“Oh, right. Sorry Ikora.” He muttered sheepishly, tucking his hands behind his back and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

“Perhaps that will be a suitable distraction for you.” The woman said, nodding her head towards the front of the Hall.

Cayde turned his head to see an obviously new Guardian making their way down the steps into the Hall. Sundance chirped curiously from his left, her fins spinning in excitement. His new Hunter looked like she had already been through hell and back. Her armor was obviously just salvaged from the Cosmodrome in the EDZ, full of dents and half the paint job missing, instead of a cloak with a hood, she sported a ragged scarf around her neck. She was fidgeting with the clasp on her helmet as she passed by Shaxx, ignoring the Crucible handler’s loud call to join him. Cayde bit back a smirk, Shaxx wouldn’t like that. 

As she got closer he could hear that she was arguing with her Ghost, tugging harder and harder at the clasp on her helmet.

“No, I think it’s stuck.” Her voice was distorted by the voice mod on the helmet, it came out overlapped with low static.

“What’s up, newbie?” Cayde called, raising a hand in greeting. 

The freshly resurrected Guardian glanced behind her, as if to be sure that he was actually talking to her, before dropping her hands to her hips and closing the distance between them. Cayde sized her up, he could tell that under that outdated and bulky armor, she was a svelte little thing with slim shoulders, a fairly narrow waist and a small flare to her hips. 

“I’m Cayde-6, your Vanguard leader. I assume your Ghost gave you the rundown of what we do here?” He nodded when she hummed in agreement. “Good, saves me from having to go over that boring crap about us being embodiments of Light, fighting back the minions of Darkness and blah blah blah.” Cayde ignored the glare that Zavala shot him from the head of the table and raised a brow when he heard what he was fairly certain was a snort of laughter from under her helmet. 

“So, I’m immortal?” She asked quietly, twisting her gloved fingers together in front of her. 

“As long as you keep that little guy safe.” Cayde shrugged, gesturing to the Ghost that hung back behind her shoulder. 

He couldn’t stand talking to a helmet. His favorite part about new Guardians was the wide eyed look of astonishment at, well… everything. 

“You don’t have to wear that helmet in the tower, y’know. You’re not a titan.” He chuckled at his own joke. 

“Oh, uh… I’ll… I can’t-“

“Clasp rusty?” The Exo grinned, and the woman in front of him nodded silently. “Yeah that happens with some of the older gear. Who knows how long it’s been out there. Here, I gotcha.” 

Deftly, Cayde pulled a knife from it’s sheath on his leg and took a step forward to reach up and flick the blade through the dry rotted leather strap that attached to the clasp keeping the helmet air tight. Just as the Awoken in front of him let loose an indignant “ _HEY!_ ” there was a hiss of air as the seal broke on the helmet and the Exo smiled at her. 

“Bah, don’t worry about it. I’ll get you a better one.” He chuckled, waving dismissively as he reached for his data pad and tapped through a few pages. “There, transmatted to your new apartment.” 

“New apartment?” 

Cayde noticed the lack of a voice mod and glanced up to see his newbie removing her helmet. Her skin was such a light muted shade of blue that it almost looked gray, with swirling patterns of Light swimming under her skin and making it seem to glow. Shocking, electric blue hair fell from the helmet and down her back in waves. Cayde wondered idly how she had fit all of that hair under the helmet. Then she opened her eyes, an inquisitive look on her face. And _hot damn_ , those bright orange eyes. Cayde had been around for a while, and he had seen plenty of Awoken, even some with orange eyes. But hers were blazing like solar fire. And then he felt it. The Light and the heat radiating off of her in waves. The Hunter Vanguard knew then, he finally had someone with real potential. All she needed was someone to help hone that power, a mentor. Just as Andal Brask had been to him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **DISCLAIMER: I only own my personal original characters and ideas. Any familiar characters, events, and locations likely belong to Bungie.**  
> 

“So you got a name, newbie?” Cayde inquired as he led the Awoken Hunter through the Tower.

He had quickly excused himself from the Hall of Guardians early, an excuse thrown to Commander Zavala that he needed to show the newbie around. Zavala had rolled his eyes, but kept quiet. He knew it would be better for all involved to just let the Hunter go, he had been especially antsy that day.

The Awoken woman shrugged, looking unsure as she glanced at her Ghost for support. The little construct bobbed it’s fins at her before twirling in a circle, motes of light swirling through the air.

“I don’t remember my name from… from before, if that’s what you’re asking.” She replied quietly, crossing her arms over her chest as she followed him passed the postmaster, which he pointed out quietly.

“Naw, hardly anyone ever remembers that kinda stuff.” He assure her, waving a hand in front of him as if to dismiss the thought. “Who are you _now_?”

“Well, my Ghost has been calling me Imogen.”

Cayde stopped midstep, turning to blink at the new Hunter beside him. She took a few more strides before realizing that he had stopped and turned to face him.

“What?” She demanded.

“I’m sorry. Your Ghost has been calling you _girl_.” He chortled, the sound mechanical and heavy.

A blush colored the Awoken’s cheeks a deep blue as she turned to glare at her ghost accusingly.

“I’m going to change your name.” She hissed and the tiny bot drew it’s fins in on itself defensively.

“No, no. It’s a good name.” Cayde reassured her, pulling her narrowed eyes off of the Ghost and onto him. “ _Really_. I just didn’t expect it is all.”

“Hmm. I’m still thinking about changing your name.” She shot to the Ghost beside her as she reached up to flick a fin, but her tone was more playful now.

“So what did you name the little guy? My girl here, this is Sundance.” Cayde gestured to the Ghost that was currently resting on his shoulder and continued walking across the plaza.

Something akin to surprise crossed her face and she furrowed her brow thoughtfully.

“I named him Belenos. I’m not sure how I know, but I think Belenos was a Sun God before the Golden Age.” The furrow between her brows deepened and she started gnawing on her bottom lip.

“Huh. How ‘bout that.” The Exo muttered, glancing at his own Ghost. “Well I think it’s safe to assume your Light is Solar. I could feel it back in the Hall.” He didn’t mention that it was unusual for such a young Guardian to be putting off so much Light.

She nodded, bringing her hand up in front of her and turning it this way and that, watching as small flames danced between her fingers. Cayde let out a gasp that was strangled with static, grabbing her hand and shoving it back down to her side. She looked surprised and tore her hand away from him, cradling it up to her chest. He raised his hands defensively before leaning in to explain in a hushed voice.

“No using your Light in the Tower. At least not in the common areas, that’s a great way to get your ass in trouble. And when your ass is in trouble, it means lots’a paperwork for me. Got it?” The Exo didn’t bother to explain to her that the fact that she could already pull her Light out for a party trick was incredible. A brand new Guardian, already having that much of a grasp on controlling their Light? Unheard of.

She nodded her head slowly before letting her hands drop again and following the Hunter Vanguard down a short hallway to an elevator. Cayde had to jab his finger onto the button three times before it finally lit up and called the elevator. With a murmured request, Sundance sent a maintenance report to any available frame in the area. Once the elevator finally reached them, Cayde led the way inside and leaned a hip against the railing before looking to the Hunter across from him.

“It’s eight floors down.” He informed her, gesturing to the control panel on her side of the elevator.

The Awoken rolled those burning orange eyes and stepped forward to hit the button before moving back and mimicking Cayde’s stance across from him. The elevator was slow, occasionally made an unnerving clanging noise, and shook on it’s way down to the residential halls. Cayde observed the new Hunter in front of him, she pretended not to notice.

“So! You used your Golden Gun yet? How was it? The first time’s always special.”

Again, Imogen’s brow furrowed.

“Golden Gun?”

“Yeah, yeah. When you’re in combat sometimes your Light becomes volatile towards those freaky aliens. We call it a “Super.” But if your Light is Solar, you’ll have a Golden Gun.”

“I mean, I felt the thing with the light but…” She glanced at her Ghost and he bobbed his fins supportively. “It wasn’t a gun. It was… it was knives?” She seemed confused, like she wasn’t quite sure she believed what she had seen or felt.

The Exo considered the Awoken in front of him, his facial plates forming a frown of his own. She could already pull her Light forward on command and she was a Blade Barrage Gunslinger? There was something interesting about the woman, there was no doubt about that.

“Look, newbie. I’m not gonna lie to you, not many people ever master the Blade Barrage. And that party trick you pulled out there, with the fire fingers? That usually takes Guardians years to pull off.” The Hunter Vanguard crossed one foot over the other and rested his hands on his hips. “Not sayin’ you’re the first, and you probably won’t be the last. But Light that strong doesn’t come around very often. Just… just don’t let it go to your head, alright?”

Imogen gave a confused tilt of her head and twist of her lips before nodding her head hesitantly. The elevator dinged and the Hunter Vanguard stepped out and the Awoken followed. The residential floors were rarely quiet, and today was no exception. Guardians were noisy, many enjoyed listening to music way too loud in their private apartments, or watching the crucible with their displays as loud as they would go. While Cayde didn’t necessarily enjoy his job as the Hunter Vanguard, it did have it’s perks. And one of those perks was a larger than average apartment on a quiet floor.

“Well this one is you.” The Exo said, stopping in front of a door near the end of the hall.

The only thing that distinguished this door from the ones surrounding it was a small metal plate at the top of the frame with the number 713 engraved on it. To the right of the door frame was a small data pad set into the wall. The vanguard motioned to it with a synthetic hand.

“You ghost can open the door for you, and you can set a code on the number pad on the other side of the door. That way your friends can let themselves in. And your ghost has to forward me any changes made to the door code.”

The hunter beside him nodded silently, eyes darting up and down the hall before returning to the door in front of her.

“I know it’s loud but you get used to it.” Cayde assured her before gesturing to the door again. “You gonna check it out or what?” He demanded, lip plates lifting into a smirk.

Imogen nodded to her ghost and he swirled forward to unlock the door in a small flash of light.

The door slid into the wall and revealed a moderately sized studio apartment beyond. Imogen stepped over the threshold and Cayde followed. The far wall was all floor to ceiling windows, sunlight streamed in, illuminating motes of dust floating in the air. Near the windows was a queen sized bed with a bedside table and lamp. There was a living room area with a couch, armchair, and coffee table. As well as a small kitchen with a bar top seating area. From beside her, the Vanguard pointed to two doors on the left wall of the apartment.

“Bathroom and closet.” He explained. “And your ghost can dim the windows for you. It looks nice now but after a night on the Strikes or at the bar, it’s annoying the next morning.”

Imogen chuckled and made her way to the bed, picking up the helmet that Cayde had supposedly had transmatted there. It was much nicer than the helmet she had salvaged out in the wilds, sleek and shiny. She sat, looking down at her reflection in the visor of the helmet. Slow, heavy footfalls interrupted her musing and she peered up at the Exo, his blue visual optics seemed impossibly bright as he studied her.

“It gets better.” He assured her, taking a knee in front of her so they were eye to eye. “It really sucks in the beginning, I’m not gonna lie to ya. But it does get better.”

The pair stared each other down for a moment before the Exo cleared his throat, a strange static from the back of his throat, and looked away. He patted her knee before standing back up and heading for the door.

“Oh, one more thing!” The elder Hunter exclaimed, cloak fluttering as he turned to face her from the doorway. “I want to see you at 0500 tomorrow at the firing range. Your ghost knows how to get there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay! Had some personal stuff going on. Working on part three now and would love some reviews.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **DISCLAIMER: I only own my personal original characters and ideas. Any familiar characters, events, and locations likely belong to Bungie.**

Imogen turned and threw a grenade over her shoulder at a group of Fallen Dregs. The explosive broke apart and each individual piece latched on to a Dreg, disintegrating some and sending the rest flying. With a hidden smirk beneath her helmet, the Hunter turned and fired off three quick rounds from her hand cannon, dropping three Vandals before they could even raise their rifles to aim at her. She heard an awful snarl from behind her and turned to face a large Fallen Captain. She danced around the beast as he swiped two left arms at her, hoping to catch her and send her flying. From behind him, she summoned a flaming knife from midair and plunged it forward into the neck of the Captain.

Before her knife could make contact, the Captain in front of her disappeared in a burst of light powered pixels. The terrain shifted and melted away to reveal a dark room lined entirely with square panels on three walls, the fourth wall was made up of glass. As lights came on behind the glass revealing the Hunter Vanguard and eight other new Guardians, Imogen ripped the helmet off of her head, sparks trailing from her fingertips as she tossed it to the floor.

“What the hell, Cayde?!” She balled her fists at her sides in frustration, this was the fourth time this week that he had stopped her simulation training. “I had that handled!”

“You should have used your Super there.” Cayde’s voice cut through a PA system, and through the glass Imogen could see the Exo regarding her carefully. “I’m coming in.”

She watched as he flipped a switch on the table in front of him before turning to the other Guardians behind him, he jabbed a metal finger in their direction before turning and stepping into the training room through a glass door.

“Tell me what’s going on.” The Vanguard requested once he had come to a stop in front of her with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Nothing.” Imogen muttered darkly, glancing over the Vanguard’s shoulder at the other Guardians that were practically pressing their ears against the glass. “I had it under control.”

“They can’t hear us.” Cayde reassured, seeing how her eyes darted to the glass. “Now, why aren’t you using your Super?”

Imogen sighed and rolled her eyes, copying her mentor’s stance by crossing her arms. She looked down at her boots, tapping one toe against the paneled floor. She jerked her head up when Cayde reached over and gripped her elbow in his hand.

“What’s wrong?” He demanded quietly, blue optics burning into her as he dropped his hand. “Your shooting is some of the best I’ve seen from a new Guardian, you have no trouble with grenades, so why no Super?”

Imogen sighed again and jutted her jaw, glaring at the Hunter Vanguard mulishly before muttering something unintelligible. The Exo tilted his head at her before dropping his hands to his hips.

“Repeat that?”

“I said I’m scared, ok?!”

“Imogen, there’s nothing to be scared of. You’ve got better control over your light than some Guardians I’ve known for decades.” Cayde tried to reassure her, reaching out to grasp her shoulder. “You’re not going to hurt anyone here.”

Imogen pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and regarded the Hunter in front of her silently. She wasn’t scared of hurting anyone. There had been enough near misses in their week of training that she knew it was near impossible to hurt another Guardian with Light outside of the Crucible. But how could she admit that she was scared of disappointing her mentor? This man that was regarded as a legend amongst everyone in the Tower, and that had taken a special interest in her abilities.

“I can’t release you for patrols until you’ve demonstrated your ability to control your Super.” Cayde warned quietly when she stayed silent.

The young Hunter let out a slow breath before stooping to pick up her helmet. She nodded once it was back in place on her head.

“Ok.”

The Exo’s mouth plates stretched into a grin and he knocked a couple of knuckles against the side of her helmet before turning and moving back to the observation room. Instead of going through the glass door, he leaned against it. One foot kicked up against the glass and arms crossed over his chest. He was a pillar of support as he instructed his Ghost to run the simulation again.

Imogen heard the group of Fallen behind her and her hand itched to produce a grenade but she ignored it. She focused on the heat building in her chest instead and took off running for the opposite wall, and by the time she reached it the heat had built so much she was sure she could breathe fire if she had wanted to. The Awoken flung herself at the wall, using her momentum to kick herself off and up to sail over the group of Fallen chasing her. Her Light was like a river breaking through a dam and spilling its banks and the warmth rushed over her almost painfully as she flung her hands out towards her enemies, unleashing a barrage of flaming throwing knives. She landed nimbly on her feet, right behind the Fallen Captain. Before the beast could react, she had whipped out her hand cannon and fired one shot directly through the back of his large skull. It tottered for a moment before letting out a groan and falling face forward, disintegrating into Light as the simulation faded away.

Her chest was heaving as she holstered her hand cannon, sparks still trailing from her fingertips, and her head whipped to the side when she heard clapping. She had nearly forgotten he was there but Cayde clapping enthusiastically and the other Guardians were watching her with slack jaws.

“That’s my girl!”

Under her helmet, Imogen felt her face flush.

* * *

“Interesting.” Zavala murmured as he watched the footage from that morning’s training.

“That girl just released the most form perfect Blade Barrage I’ve ever seen, not to mention she’s the first Blade Barrage Hunter in over a decade, and all you can say is _interesting_?!” Cayde demanded as he swiped the data pad back from the Titan Vanguard.

The large Awoken huffed in annoyance and shook his head, returning to the paperwork in front of him. From across the table, Ikora chuckled quietly and shook her head as she swiped through her data pad. Cayde turned his glare on her and she smirked at him with a quirk of her eyebrow.

“Something funny?” The Hunter snapped.

“And so the mentor finds a prodigy.” Was all the Warlock said, chuckling a bit more before returning to her work.

Cayde considered that for a moment. Ikora was right, in all the years that he had been the Hunter Vanguard, he had never had that _one_ Hunter that drove him to be a better mentor, that one that he believed could do it all. And now she had been dropped in his lap.

“Sundance, send me activity reports for the Moon.” He muttered, peering down at the data pad in his hand. “Time to send our girl out into the field.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment, bookmark, leave kudos, etc. I would love to know what you think!  
> I hope everyone has a healthy and happy Thanksgiving.


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